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Tuesday, February 06, 2007

iPhone and the Wired West

Had to post up the video below a) because we're yet to mention the iPhone on this blog and b) because it illustrates so nicely (at the 8 minute and 44 second mark) Sofia's earlier post about "cellphones" as a "commodity" in the US, in contrast to the rest of the world... The iPhone is clearly causing a stir, in the US but also here. Jobs' claim to have reinvented the phone may be in some part marketing hyperbole but some of the issues he claims Apple's new product addresses, namely ease of use and reliability of software, could have been picked straight from some of the common complaints people do make when we talk to them about their current phones. Even more central to the stir the iPhone is causing is probably it's integration of other already popular computer-based systems - Google Maps, Email/Gmail, full web browsing, iTunes, Mac OSx etc. In the 'Wired West', this fusing of these familiar online/PC based apps with a mobile phone, should be exactly what is needed to develop people's otherwise rather impersonal relationships with their phones vs. the rest of the world. Apple are building on already established behaviours and bringing them to the mobile world. They have the heritage and the infrastructure to make this possible. Another interesting thought... how will Apple's one product based model work vs. those of the other mobile operators, especially outside the US where there are dozens of models vying for customer attention? Apple may have made one decision a lot easier for some consumers when the iPhone is released in the UK.... well for those who can afford it anyway! The free phone and contract market here may well make the iPhone more of a gadget fantasy than reality for most people when it is introduced here towards the end of the year. If it manages more than that then it really will be challenging the current market structure here

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